The present invention relates to a drum brake, in particular a drum brake for use in commercial vehicles.
Drum brakes for use in commercial vehicles are sufficiently well known from the prior art. In this case, two brake shoes arranged within a brake drum are usually spaced apart and pressed against the inside of the brake drum by a corresponding actuating device. The rotary motion of the brake drum relative to the brake shoes results in differential loading of the brake shoes coming into engagement with the brake drum. During this process, there is “self-energization” at one of the brake shoes, while the other brake shoe is pressed against the inside of the drum brake with a lower contact force. This differential loading profile also results in a differential amount of wear on the respective brake linings of the brake shoes. In the past, attempts have been made to this problem, for example, by means of brake shoe designs that differ from the outset and, in particular, by the production of a first brake shoe type, which is designed as a self-energizing brake shoe, and of a second brake shoe type, which is used as a “trailing” brake shoe. However, these different configurations of the two brake shoe types result in higher production costs. Moreover, it is not possible with the solutions known from the prior art also to retrospectively adapt the respective brake shoes to particular loading profiles or particular brake drum configurations.
In view of these problems in the prior art, the object of the present invention is to provide a drum brake in which uniform wearing of the brake linings of the drum brake can be achieved and which allows high flexibility and, as a result thereof, also retrospective adaptation of the brake shoes to the respective operating conditions. Moreover, the present invention is intended to reduce the production costs for a drum brake.